Letter #303: Tony Godsick (2024)
TEAM8 Founder & President, Laver Cup Chairman, and IMG Agent | Laver Cup Chairman Tony Godsick on the ‘Ryder Cup of Tennis,’ Roger Federer, Nike, Uniqlo
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Tony Godsick is the Cofounder, CEO, and President of TEAM8. Prior to starting TEAM8, Tony was an agent at IMG, where he started as an intern and went on to manage tennis players such as Monica Seles, Lindsay Davenport, Anna Kournikova, Tommy Haas, and Roger Federer. After nearly a decade working together, Tony and Roger left IMG and teamed up with legendary investor Ian McKinnon and Dirk Ziff to form TEAM8, a sports management company that also created and manages the Laver Cup. As the CEO of TEAM8, Tony helped Roger become one of just ~10 billionaire athletes (alongside the likes of Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods) by negotiating a 10-year $300mn deal with Uniqlo and a 3% investment in On Holding (market cap: $13.6bn).
Today’s letter is the transcript of a conversation with Tony. In this conversation, Tony shares how he was connected with and started working with Roger and how it’s actually been easier since Federer retired, Federer’s role and transitioning from player to ambassador for the Laver Cup, parallels of the Laver Cup to golf’s Ryder Cup, Roger leaving Nike for Uniqlo and starting to work with On, the resurgence of tennis fandom in America, athlete use of social media, the NIL, the end of the Federer-Nadal-Djokovic era and the beginning of the Alcaraz-Sinner era, and global aspect of tennis that makes it so appealing.
I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did!
[Transcript and any errors are mine.]
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Transcript
Host: Tony, thanks for joining me.
Tony Godsick: Thanks for having me.
Host: So let's just start this way. We're gonna talk about the Laver Cup, it's coming up. But let's kind of rewind. You have been Roger Federer's agent. You have had quite a ride with Federer. Obviously, also there's Del Potro and other clients, but talk to me about how that relationship has evolved over the years. I mean, we'll talk about the Laver Cup, which you guys co-created, but managing the business of Roger Federer.
Tony Godsick: Yeah, thanks for having me. I'm a big fan, so this is fun for me to do. I got very lucky. Actually, next year, it'll be 20 years since I first met Roger. He had just won the US Open 2005 against Andre Agassi, and Ted Forstmann and one of my other clients, Monica Seles, at the time, told me, Hey, we've got a new client coming back to IMG, and you're going to be the agent. So I actually really didn't do much to sign him. And so after he beat Andre, we started to work together. And it seems like yesterday. I mean, it's been an incredible ride. I mean, for the first four or five years, he was in the final of like every Grand Slam. So it was kind of--I had something really cool to sell. But he had like a white canvas at that time. So we were really able to sort of create a brand strategy. Tennis provides you the opportunity to have--it's a global sport. So we said, Let's go find some global brands. And we were off to the races. And he's so wonderful, and he participates so much in his business that it was really easy to partner with him and do really fun things. He overdelivers all the time. So I never have to worry about the baby sitting, showing up on time, getting in trouble. When he's in a room, you can tell he's actually happy to be there. You don't, on his face--some athletes, you say, Oh, you can tell when the clock hits midnight, they want out. Roger really is an interesting person. He loves people. So, yeah, so we were just off to the races, and it was fun. I mean, people say, Oh, he's retired now, you must be retiring. I say, well, when he played, he had excuses, which is, I'm practicing and I'm playing. Now, he's not practicing and he's not playing. So we have a lot more time for business partnerships and different investments we've made. And the Laver Cup, obviously, was something that we created together back in 2015, 2016. And to see it--it's our seventh year coming up here in Berlin in a few weeks, it's amazing. But it's been a lot of fun. He is really one of a kind.
Host: So let's talk about the Laver Cup. First year without Federer playing.
Tony Godsick: This will be--he retired in 22, so this will be the second edition. Vancouver, and now Berlin.
Host: Got it. So, how did that change things in terms of which players--you emphasize--you've still got a number of the top 20 ranked in the world playing this year, which is great. I see Ben Shelton is going to be there, and you still have Rafa, and a number of the biggest names. But obviously, I imagine Roger goes--and does he now kind of transition to becoming almost like an ambassador?
Tony Godsick: Sure. So he's a cofounder and a creator of the event. It's not the Federer Cup, it's the Laver Cup. One of the really nice things when we got started with the Laver Cup--we needed sponsors, and we obviously needed blue chip amazing sponsors. And Roger had a portfolio of blue chip amazing sponsors. And so Rolex is our founding sponsor, and we have UBS there as well, and Mercedes--and these are his brands. On is a sponsor, and Uniqlo. So he's there actually quite busy. And I always tell sponsors, he's actually probably more valuable now that he's not playing, because he actually has time to spend with their customers and do interviews and welcome the players and things like that. So it's definitely changed. We always called Roger the ticket magnet. Literally, we would put tickets on sale, we wouldn't spend any money on advertising or marketing, and the tickets would sell out within like an hour. Now it's a bit different. We're still sold out and stuff, but we actually have to get creative. And there are big stars now. As you mentioned, Rafa is playing, Carlos Alcaraz is playing for the first time. Taylor Fritz is playing. Ben Shelton, who is arguably going to be one of the next biggest stars here in the US, he's playing. Francis Tiafoe is playing, he's still in the US Open. So we have a plethora of big stars. So it's going to be a lot of fun. But he--it's different now. But he comes for the whole week. He really enjoys it. I think he's super proud of it. He wanted to create--he felt like a) we've got to do something for Rod Laver. This guy basically took off a whole chunk of time to usher in the professional game. The guys are going to be out there and the women are going to be playing for $3.Xmn. Rod barely made that in his entire career. And he won two calendar year grand slams. And so Roger wanted to create a--there was no event where the past stars of tennis came back collectively and could interact with current stars and future stars. And that's sort of what the Laver Cup is all about. And so Roger also sort of geeks out at the fact that Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe are the captains. He loves spending time with those guys. Obviously, Rod Laver is there too, and he's such a legend. And then you've got some of the biggest stars in the game with Nadal and others. So it's really--it's amazing.
Host: When you talk about captains, and it rotates city every year--this year it's in Berlin. Obvious parallels to the Ryder Cup in golf. Talk to me a little bit about trying to make it, if it's fair to say, the Ryder Cup of tennis, and the thinking also with it being team Europe versus Team Rest of World, which is kind of interesting there, that it's not--golf is just US and Europe or UK.
Tony Godsick: No, so, look. We love when we're compared to the Ryder Cup, I mean, they've got 100 year start on us. So we are a historical event with very little history. So we're actually trying to build the history. I think one of the--you saw it this summer--well, you see it every Olympics with basketball, but you saw it really with the Avengers this year, with the big team. When you get rivals to become teammates for a short period of time, it's magical. And that's, I think, what we've created here. It's not--some of the doubles combinations--a lot of people who play tennis really just play doubles, but you never see the big stars playing together. And so this is an opportunity where we showcase the best of men's tennis in unique formats, rivals become teammates, and the team competition matters. People, when we started, were like, well, you think the guys are going to try hard? I said, Are you crazy? I mean, this was Roger's point too. The peer pressure is amazing. You've got McEnroe, Borg sitting on the court coaching you. You've got the greats like Rod Laver watching. You've got your other sort of competitors watching too. So these guys try really hard, and it's amazing. And I just think the unique--it's not all year long. This is just one weekend. And the players seem to like it. And the fact that we rotate this around the world is really interesting. We hit some of the cities that don't normally see a lot of tennis, or--we've been to some cities that actually do see a lot of tennis, and just love it. But, yeah, it's been great. But we love the comparison. I mean, you've said, Ryder Cup's been so successful, and people get so geared up to watch these combinations. And then the optics, the content that's created, seeing these superstars on the same team, coaching one another, giving each other tips, I think, is great. And there's, I mean--the uniforms matter too. You see these guys all wearing different things, and the fact that these guys--and then Laver Cup, we've got Team World is in red, and Team Europe's in blue, and they're wearing their brands, which obviously was very important. We wanted each player to be able to wear their brands, but the uniform look, I think every once in a while, is wonderful.
Host: I wanted to ask you, especially when we talk about managing Federer, about brands on the court and apparel. For so many years he had the Nike deal and the RF logo. Then went to Uniqlo, which I remember covering at the time, and it was kind of amazing to sign a new apparel endorsement deal that late in his career. And now, of course, in the last few years, working with On, and--I know On as a running brand, but On getting into tennis shoes. Talk to me about kind of managing those deals, and also, even now that he's retired, how that works with, using him as an ambassador, and, as you said, in some ways maybe even more valuable now.
Tony Godsick: Yeah, absolutely. Look, Roger spent, I think, over 24 years with Nike. It was amazing. They helped make him a huge star. The contract was coming to an end. What do you do with a 36 year old, soon to be retired athlete? I tried to convince them that you can do a lot. They have so many different superstars. They do an amazing job. And so, we went out and looked for for another deal, and because Roger actually has such a passion for fashion--it wasn't something that I fabricated. I mean, he'd always--he's very close with Anna Wintour, he and his wife Mirka, and they've been to fashion shows, and he genuinely really likes fashion. So when I was able to go to Japan and meet Mr. Yanai and learn more about Uniqlo and Fast Retailing, it became very clear that--actually, one of their top executives, John Jay, had a great quote. He said, Look, Roger might retire from tennis, but he won't retire from life. And so it was interesting, because they're all about life wear, and yes, they are in tennis, but they're also about fashion, and so it was a great fit. And so anyway, Nike decided they didn't want to match, which was totally fine, and we were on our way. And Fast Retailing, Uniqlo, they don't make shoes and sneakers. So in the beginning, Roger wore sneakers. And I had gotten to know the On guys because I had invested with them a few years before. And so I just got to know the guys, and they would always ask me, Do you think it's ever possible we can do something with Roger? And I said, No, he's with Nike. He'll be with Nike forever. And so, sure enough, in 2018, when he moved to Uniqlo, there became an opportunity. And at that point, I'd already gotten to know the founders, and they were--they started in 2011, I think. But they were on their way. And every time I went to Zurich, I'd go speak to them, and I just--I saw they were building something unique. And then I started seeing all these shoes everywhere. And they believed, funny enough, they believed in tennis. They said, Look, this is an interesting platform. We believe in it. Where some of the other brands, they don't focus as much on tennis. Some of the big brands out there have had some of the biggest superstars and maybe don't utilize them as much. On really felt like, Wow, there's something here with tennis. And so because a combination of Roger being injured, he had this knee surgery, plus Covid, he actually was home for a lot, and their headquarters are in Zurich, and so Roger could spend a lot of time with their designers, their developers, with Olivier Bernard, who's the original founder, coming up with a shoe. And I think they, I mean, they went through at least 10 different iterations of the shoe. And then when he was able to come back, in Doha, he wore the shoe. And it's been great. And Uniqlo and On work really closely together. But they're two completely different brands. They're both super global. And it's been fun. And when you're at one of the bigger brands, you're one of many. And especially with some of the real big brands, like Nike, they've got so many superstars. Whereas Roger went to Uniqlo, and he was a superstar there, and they really focused on growing his brand. And then On was just starting, and starting in tennis--
Host: Until they signed Zendaya.
Tony Godsick: Until they signed Zendaya, which was great, because that was a part of the market they wanted to go after. And I would argue there's no bigger superstar in Hollywood, at the moment, then Zendaya. And then she was in this the Challengers movie, which was great for tennis. So it really was great. And this was all their idea. I mean, these guys really have an incredible vision at On. But ultimately, where they're doing so well is they understand that their core business is the runner. And the athlete. And so people like, Oh, what's the next superstar movie star they're going to sign? And I'm like, I think they're also going to focus on making sure people win marathons, and they've got this new light spray technology that they just came up with. So it's been a lot of fun, and it's been like a breath of fresh air. It's like a new career for Roger.
Host: Yeah, that's really cool. Good, obvious fit. It's funny. Mentioning Zendaya and the movie Challengers, it's kind of a natural segue. It feels to me like there's more momentum in the last couple years with tennis in America, because now we once again have some big American stars. We've had more Americans hang around in this US Open than in past years. On the women's side there's Pegula, on the men's side there's Big Foe and Ben Shelton--they had that incredible, really close battle, Tiafoe and Shelton did, and you've got these guys at the Laver Cup. So let's kind of zoom out and talk about just state of the sport. What excites you when you look at the young stars today, having been 20 years in and around this business, and feels like things are in a really healthy place in the US again, for fandom.
Tony Godsick: Yes, no. Look, the US Open, has gone from strength to strength. I mean, it's a massive operation, and it's obviously the best tennis in the world, but it's also sort of a must attend event in the United States. So they've done a great job. I think--also, when I first started in the business in the early 90s, not to date myself, when I was at IMG, in order to become super famous, you needed to make the middle weekend, or the final weekend of a Grand Slam, because then you were going to be on CBS or NBC or whatever it might be. Now, every athlete's got a channel of their own, or multiple channels, with Tiktok and Instagram and Twitter or X and stuff, so they've got that going for them. So they can sort of cultivate their brand throughout the entire year. And then, people generally care about the content. You see there's content crews behind the scenes everywhere. It used to be taboo. The players would never allow cameras, sort of behind the scenes, such access. In the gym, leaving the locker room, and all that stuff. And now the players have accepted it, and embraced it. And so you've got that. And then what's really nice, we were touching on it before, with the fashion, is fashion brands love tennis. I mean, they just do. Look at--Gucci's got a tennis line out right now. You've got Lululemon that's come into the sport. Obviously, Nike and Adidas. You've got On coming. They've got Ben Shelton, Iga Swiatek, the number one player in the world.
Host: When I go to the US Open, I'm always struck by the Polo stuff, too. The Ralph Lauren--I mean, they must make a killing.
Tony Godsick: They do a great job. Yeah. I mean, I spent some time talking to Patrice Louvet, the CEO. I've know when he was at Gillette, he was the President of Gillette when Roger was there. They've got some great tennis stuff, and they've been doing wonderful things. I mean, they've been working with Ben Shelton with a fragrance, launching it around the US Open, and stuff like that. So you see all these brands coming into them, and then they amplify tennis, sort of outside of the grounds, which I think is really helpful. And then you've got people like Coco Gauff. I mean, she's one of our clients, and I will tell you, she's amazing. And she gets it. All of her social stuff she does herself. It's all organic. She loves it. And you've got a bunch of stars that are doing that. I mean, look, Emma Navarro, great story. UVA, went to college for two years. College used to be--it wasn't the pathway for tennis, especially on the female side. If you went to college, it was kind of too late for you to make it as a pro. You know, Graf and Seles and Sabatini and Hingis. They all 16, 17 years old were making deep runs in slams. So if you went to college, it was over. Now, not only are they going to college, winning NCAA, Emma did.
Host: NIL helps.
Tony Godsick: NIL helps. I'm not a big fan of this NIL stuff. I mean, I've seen some things in the in the last few weeks where I'm like, college sports--what's happening?
Host: It's crazy.
Tony Godsick: Yeah. I mean, my son is a--he'll be a sophomore at Stanford. Plays there. He's now in the ACC. And he's got aspirations to be a pro. I want him to have those aspirations, but he's also--I've got aspirations as a father that he studies. How's that going to work? So he's done playing UNC, or Virginia now too. That's a long flight into the wind, back to--[crosstalk]. I don't know. So I think all that stuff will eventually get reset, certainly for the Olympic sports, maybe not sort of the big sports like football, the money sports. But college sports, there's a pathway now from college to the pro game. You see tons of people.John Isner started--he was at Georgia. And then you've got--Cam Norrie did very well. And so that's very exciting too. But there's always going to be a new superstar. There always is. When Sampras and Agassi were leaving, everyone's like, Tennis is going to be dead on the men's side. And then Federer came along.
Host: And then people said about Federer, Nadal, Djokovic when that era ends.
Tony Godsick: And now Alcaraz is coming, and Novak stayed around and is doing great still at 37 or whatever it might be.
Host: Although Alcaraz losing in the second round in straight sets was shocking.
Tony Godsick: I think it was a shock. It was a long summer for for the players. The Olympics and the emotion of the Olympics. The Olympics happened right after Wimbledon. I will say the pressure on these athletes are bigger than ever. Because when a top superstar goes to a tournament, they're not just playing the tournament. So the first tournament they're playing when they go to the tournament is actually the tournament against their opponents, which is getting tougher and tougher. Then the big superstars have to deal with the media commitments, the content we were talking about, and all that stuff. So that's a lot of pressure. And then the superstars--every champion puts pressure on themself. So that's the third one. You're putting pressure on yourself. So you combine those three together, it's tough. And it happens--tennis goes all year long. It never stops. And that's what I love about the Laver Cup. I mean, going back to the Laver Cup, it's a three day event. It's not a week or two weeks, it's a three day event. And I think that matters. If you add more events to the calendar than a week--I mean, look, the slams are now--UST had a fan week, so they're sort of encroaching on a three week event. The Masters 1000s are all 12-day events. That's sort of two days away from being a Grand Slam.
Host: Becoming like the NFL. It's a year round news cycle.
Tony Godsick: Exactly, exactly. But tennis really--especially you see it in--the most famous female athletes in the world are always tennis players. Because it's global. You think about it. They're always the highest paid athletes on the on the women's side. Serena Williams, now Coco Gauff. Back in the day, obviously, Monica Seles and Hingis and Kournikova and all these guys. Tennis players. But they have a Super Bowl or an Olympics four times a year with the slams, and then other big events in major markets. So I think that's one of the beautiful things about tennis being so global.
Host: It's a great place to end. We could talk about this all day, but we'll leave it there. Tony, thanks so much.
Tony Godsick: Thanks for having me.
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